White House Down: The Critics' Low-Down

New Roland Emmerich political thriller White House Down gets released in the UK and USA tomorrow (28th June) but it is worth going to see?

After premiering on the 25th of June, Roland Emmerich's new movie White House Down is set for cinema release. The film stars Channing Tatum (Magic Mike), Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight) in a high-paced topical thriller. The director who brought you the White House's alien destruction in Independence Day is back to blow up the president's house once again - but this time it's terrorists.

The film is led by Channing Tatum who plays divorced father and USCP officer John Cale who after being rejected from the secret service, tries to make it up to his idolizing young daughter by joining her on a tour of the White House. They picked the wrong day for sightseeing however, as terrorists begin to bomb the White House causing some serious devastation. It's now up to Cale to protect his daughter and President Sawyer (Foxx) as they try to escape.

Jamie Foxx And Director Roland Emmerich.

The Hollywood Reporter described the movie as "an action thriller that doesn't know when to quit" yet voices its concerns that White House Down will be overshadowed by - or over-compared to - Olympus Has Fallen, the Antoine Fuqua similarly plotted political thriller released 3 months ago. However, Tatum's character is praised as "snug fitting" and striking "the right balance between everyman screw-up and quick-thinking, fearless dynamo" yet THR blames the post-9/11 smuggled-in bomb practicalities as "borderline ludicrous."

The consensus is that the film is "formulaic and overcomplicated" yet perhaps we should celebrate its implausible bone-headedness as "what the director lacks in finesse, he makes up for in his wholehearted embrace of Hollywood cliché." Bombs, guns, ear-splitting explosions, and cheesily dramatic action film lines - you know the drill. Don't expect to see any degree of plausibility or originality in Emmerich's non-stop guns and explosions movie, but expect to see Channing Tatum running round in a vest getting sweaty and a rather nice moment where Jamie "Obama" Foxx dons some hi-tops and gets gunnin'. Released tomorrow (28th June) in US/UK.